In the summer of 2017, BC’s new provincial government promised to reform environmental assessment and planning in British Columbia. This commitment puts BC at the doorstep of a major opportunity to transform the way we assess and plan for development activities in the province, in order to better align provincial decisions with the needs of ecosystems, the vision of BC communities, and the exercise of jurisdiction by Indigenous nations.

The BC government’s promise of reform is welcome and sorely needed, because our current approach to environmental assessment and planning in BC is not working. This backgrounder considers some key problems with BC’s current environmental assessment and planning regime that must be addressed.